The TAACCCT program had a strong focus on evidence-based practice and evaluation. The Department conducted a multi-faceted national evaluation of the TAACCCT projects to inform workforce development policy and advance DOL’s mission to help the nation's employers and workers. In addition, the Department required grantees to incorporate evidence-based design into their projects and, beginning in Round 2, to retain an independent, third-party evaluator to design and execute a rigorous evaluation of each funded project. The aim was for grantees to develop new evidence on effective workforce education and training strategies that could be replicated broadly.
National Evaluation
The national evaluation of TAACCCT grants adds evidence on what works in workforce development and community college training. Composed of four components—an implementation study, an outcomes study, a synthesis of grantee third-party evaluation findings, and an employer perspectives study—the national evaluation provides lessons on program implementation, capacity building at community colleges, and the effectiveness of strategies on participants’ education and employment outcomes.
Available TAACCCT National Evaluation Publications
Outcomes Reports
Reports of nine Round 4 grantees using survey data and administrative records to understand the characteristics of TAACCCT participants better, their service receipt, and their education and employment outcomes.
- Round 4 Early Outcomes Study Report
(Final Report, December 2020) - Round 4 Early Outcomes Study Report
(Appendices, December 2020) - Grantee Profiles
(December 2020)
Synthesis Reports
Reports that aim to draw a national picture of the implementation of the TAACCCT capacity-building strategies and build evidence of the effectiveness of the strategies on participants’ education and employment outcomes.
- Implementation, Outcomes, and Impact Synthesis Report: Round 4 TAACCCT Third-Party Evaluations
(Final Report, December 2020) - Synthesis of Findings from Rounds 1 and 2 TAACCCT Third-Party Evaluations
(Final Report, September 2020) - Systems Change in Community Colleges: Lessons from a Synthesis of the Round 3 TAACCCT Third-Party Evaluations
(Final Report, September 2020) - Synthesis of Impact Findings from Round 3 TAACCCT Third-Party Evaluations
(Final Report, September 2020)
Employer Perspectives
Studies of employer relationships with selected employer-partners to better understand employers’ perspectives on how to develop and maintain strong relationships with colleges.
- Employer Perspectives on Building Partnerships with Community Colleges: Lessons for Local Leaders and Practitioners from Round 4
(Topic Brief, September 2020) - The Employers Perspectives Study: Insights on How to Build and Maintain Strong Employer-College Partnerships
(Final Report, November 2018)
Implementation Reports and Topic Briefs
Reports that analyze the service delivery approaches developed and the systems changed through the grants based on a survey of colleges and visits to selected colleges.
- A Picture of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grants: Results from a Survey of Round 4 Colleges
(Final Report, December 2020) - Special Topics Report (Round 4 compared to Rounds 1-3): Rural Colleges, Local Economic Recovery and Expansion, and Work-based Learning Activities
(Topic Brief, December 2020) - The TAACCCT Grant Program: Implementation of the Rounds 1 and 2 Grants
(Final Report, September 2020) - The TAACCCT Grant Program: Implementation of the Round 3 Grants
(Final Report, September 2020) - Context, Infrastructure, and Alignment Matter: Statewide Systems Change in Round 4 of TAACCCT
(Topic Brief, September 2020) - Building Career Pathways Programs and Systems: Insights from TAACCCT Round 4
(Topic Brief, September 2020) - TAACCCT Goals, Design, and Evaluation
(Early Descriptive Brief, March 2017) - Grantee Characteristics
(Early Descriptive Brief, March 2017) - Approaches, Targeted Industries, and Partnerships
(Early Descriptive Brief, March 2017) - Early Results of the TAACCCT Grants
(Early Descriptive Brief, March 2017)
Grantee Third-party Evaluations
As a requirement, grantees procured third-party researchers to conduct evaluations of their projects. The Department strongly encouraged grantees to use rigorous methodologies, including both qualitative and quantitative approaches.
Rounds 1-4 grantee-procured third-party evaluation reports are available on SkillsCommons under the "Final Program Report" material type.
The New America Foundation conducted a meta-analysis of TAACCCT third-party evaluations to estimate the impact of TAACCCT grants on student outcomes, published in October 2019. Visit New America for the meta-analysis, as well as additional material on TAACCCT.
Selected third-party evaluators wrote chapters for “Large Scale Change: Lessons Learned from TAACCCT,” published in December 2020 as part of New Directions for Community Colleges, no. 193 (fee required for full access).
For research on the effectiveness of community college policies and programs related to improving academic persistence, degree/certificate completion, and labor market outcomes of community college students, visit the community college topic area of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research (CLEAR). The newly refreshed community college topic area covers impact evaluations from multiple sources from 1994-2019 and includes several TAACCCT third-party evaluations, which can be found by searching “TAACCCT.”
For further curated research on community college programs, search "TAACCCT" on WorkforceGPS for resources and reports on the TAACCCT Program, developed by TAACCCT grantees, evaluators, and other organizations, and shared on ETA's Workforce Systems Strategies.